Age Doesn't Matter
by LawrenceDaddarioWatsonStewart
Summary: When Mrs. Everdeen loses all her family and loved ones after the war, including Katniss and Peeta and Haymitch, will she be able to find love again, alone and in exile in District 12's Victors' Village? Read on to find out. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1: Remembering One in Exile

**Chapter 1: Remembering One in Exile**

I didn't want to come back to District 12. But I felt I had nowhere else to go.

There was nowhere to turn after I lost both my daughters, Katniss and Primrose, to the war. After Peeta Mellark, my eldest girl's lover, was killed with her.

Everyone I love or even knew is dead. So I retreat to my daughter's former mansion in the Victors' Village, now devoid of all its Victors, to live out the rest of my life in exile and alone.

Not many people come back to District 12. Fewer than 800 people escaped the bombings of our home after the Quarter Quell. That included my former boyfriend, Steffan Mellark and his wife and two sons among the dead. And several hundred more were claimed as war casualties. The district is still mostly destroyed, with almost all of the homes needing to be rebuilt. The only exception is the Victors' Village; the Seam and the Merchant Town were totally leveled.

I try to help with the rebuilding as best I can, and also resume my Healing practice to deal with the last of the war injuries. It gives me purpose, even if I feel all but dead inside. And the nights in that big, empty house are terribly lonely. Few people even come to visit me outside of business transactions.

Except for one person. Darius was a former Peacekeeper in the Panem-Cray-Thread regime here in District 12. He still is a Peacekeeper, but it means something very different now than it did back then. He is more of a security official, though some of his past duties he continues to do even after the destruction of the previous government. One of them is patrolling Victors' Village.

The first night he knocks on my door, I am surprised as to what he's doing there. "The war's over, you know," I tell him.

Darius is quite handsome. And still young - only 24. I, on the other hand, am old enough to be his mother, at 43.

"Someone's gotta do it. Besides, you're up here all by yourself. It must get pretty lonely."

"It does," I acknowledge. I hold the door open to him. "Would you like to come in?"

Darius's patrol stop at my house soon turn into nightly conversations over tea. He is a very engaging and kind person, and that is not something you could always say about the Peacekeepers of the old regime.

It feels nice to have a friend again.


	2. Chapter 2: Eulogizing Our Victors

**Chapter 2: Eulogizing Our Victors**

I feel humbled that District 12 has thought to put together this memorial service. Never mind that all the other districts have been undergoing similar gatherings in recent moths. For a backwater place like District 12, it feels nice.

District 12 is holding proper funerals for our four Victors of the Hunger Games. In every Victors' Village, there has always been a Fallen Tributes' Graveyard, for tributes who failed to win. Now, a separate resting place for the four people from District 12 who did win: Cassiope Fletch, Victor of the 16th Hunger Games. Haymitch Abernathy, Victor of the 50th Hunger Games, or Second Quarter Quell. Katniss Everdeen, Co-Victor of the 74th Hunger Games - my daughter. Peeta Mellark, Co-Victor of the 74th Hunger Games - her lover.

The Mayor gives introductory remarks. In the crowd, I feel glad to have Darius standing next to me, rubbing my arm for comfort, as the Mayor says: "Today we honor four heroes of this district, who gave us hope in a hopeless regime. And now, I would like to introduce the woman who gave birth to one of our four Victors: Mrs. Lillian Everdeen."

I shockingly take the podium, next to the gravesite where my daughter and her predecessors will be finally laid to rest. Cassiope has already been laid here - she died when my eldest girl was a small baby still.

"150 people from District 12 went into the arena to participate in the Hunger Games. Four were saved from its deathly clutches, my daughter included. _Four_. Out of 150. While we remember our Victors, let us also not forgot of all the tributes who came before and after them, senselessly sacrificed."

After the funeral service, I invite Darius back to my mansion alone for a cup of tea. We sip our drinks in close to silence, just enjoying the stillness of the afternoon and each other's accustomed company.

"I had a crush on your daughter, you know." Darius's sudden comment makes me raise my eyes to his. He must think I'm shocked, for he smiles sadly. "I always admired her for the hunting she did to feed you and Prim. But Gale was always around her, and I assumed... I never stood a chance."

I am actually not as shocked by Darius's declaration as he perceives me to be. I recall one New Years' Eve when Katniss came home and told me that a redheaded Peacekeeper had asked her for a kiss. It had been a party in the Hob that Gale had practically dragged her to. I never knew whether Katniss accepted or rejected the kiss. Darius's revelation helps me to guess the latter outcome. My eldest girl was never into men or romance.

I can actually recall that now with something like acceptance instead of sadness. Maybe I am starting to heal, slowly but surely.


	3. Chapter 3: Older Woman Asked Out

**Chapter 3: Older Woman Asked Out**

One night, Darius arrives for his evening patrol with a bandage on his arm. When I ask him what happened, he explains it away as just an accident. He sliced it on something while making his rounds. Nevertheless, the Healer in me insists that I put medicine on it, and I seat the young Peacekeeper up on my kitchen table and apply medicine and herbs to it before re-applying an bandage to it.

"Thanks, Lillian. I owe you one."

I smile. "No need, Darius."

"I still say I owe you," he banters back. "In fact: there's a party tomorrow night in the Hob. Why don't you come with me? It's no fun going alone."

I blink and stare at him in surprise. Why would Darius be asking me, the middle-aged un-beautiful spinster who lost her husband long ago and now both her children? Our clear age differences would make a date a little weird.

Except it doesn't have to be a date. It could just be an outing between friends.

So I accept. "Yes, Darius. Pick me up here after your patrol."

* * *

Darius comes calling during his patrol, as normal, the next evening. Only this time, he escorts me into Town on his arm.

The Hob party is very lively and fun and we dance the night away. I begin to smile and have fun for the first time since at least before my husband was killed in a mining accident a good seven years ago.


	4. Chapter 4: Boldly Courted by a Younger M

**Chapter 4: Boldly Courted by a Younger Man**

The next evening, I am in my kitchen fixing a late dinner when Darius bursts into my house, presumably on his patrol without knocking. His sudden presence startles me, as I was expecting a knock.

"Darius? What are you doing here?"

But Darius comes forward with something nervous and even desperate in his eyes. "I love you, Lillian. I had to tell you." And then he suddenly swoops me into his arms and kisses me full on the mouth.

"Hmmm!" I squeak into his lips. This is quite an orthodox way to kiss someone. And Darius is an orthodox kisser. Specifically, he is almost two decades younger than me!

But as his lips dance over my frozen ones, coaxing a response, I realize what a good kisser he is. How handsome he is - with his large muscles and the way his soft hands hold me at my waist gently. How accustomed I have become to having him around my house and how he has made me feel less lonely.

So I do the only thing I would logically do, and the one thing I have not done since before my husband passed away. I kiss this man back.

"Hmmm..." I know moan in pleasure. My hand shakes up to his shoulder and plays near the nape of his neck as I begin to kiss him back. Encouraged, Darius's hands wander lower. He cups my ass and squeezes the tender flesh there. I squirm in his embrace, certain about kissing him, but uncertain if I want to take our romantic exchanges to the next level.

"No... no..." I moan.

"Yes..." Darius hisses into my mouth. Then he boldly raises my leg to his waist.

I feel wet. And I haven't had sex in years. So though I might be out of practice, I leap into his arms, folding both of my legs around his waist. We strip each other and, naked, awkwardly explore each other and kiss and make love in my shower. We finish on my bed and fall asleep in each other's arms.


	5. Chapter 5: Age Doesn't Matter

**Chapter 5: Age Doesn't Matter**

When Darius asks me to marry him several months into our relationship, I actually surprise myself when I don't hesitate to say Yes. When we first started going out, I was tentative initially about dating a much younger man. But even though he is almost twenty years younger, Darius and I eventually came to the mutual conclusion that age doesn't matter.

I don the same wedding dress that I married my first husband in, back when I was only 19. Darius arrives one night after his patrol, as always, but now dressed in a tuxedo and not a uniform. Kneeling by the fireplace, we toast a bit of bread and share an almost indecent kiss with each other. Then my second husband takes me to bed and sleeps with me.

I thought that after the war, I had lost everything. But instead, I gained something to get me through the middle and then twilight years of my life. A new partner. I just didn't expect him to be young and handsome and a former Peacekeeper.


End file.
